Moses
Masculine
Moses is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 43,291 boys against 51 girls since 1880.
Three thousand years of continuous use sit behind these two syllables — first in Hebrew as Mosheh, then in Greek, then in Latin, then in English, with the spelling barely shifting along the way. It is one of the small handful of names that a reader in Cairo, Madrid, Warsaw or Los Angeles would recognize on sight, in one form or another. Said aloud it opens wide and closes soft: MOH-ziz.
How old is the name Moses?
Moses was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Moses alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 29,500 people named Moses are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Moses most popular?
Moses peaked in 1880, reaching #119 nationally. Today it ranks #515, 396 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Mosheh to Moses
The story of Moses
The name begins in Hebrew as Mosheh, borne by the central figure of the Exodus narrative. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible rendered it Mōusēs, Latin took it as Moses, and English inherited that spelling essentially unchanged — a rare case of a name crossing three languages without being reshaped. Because Moses appears in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian scriptures and the Quran alike, the name traveled with all three traditions, becoming Moshe in Hebrew, Musa in Arabic, Moisés in Spanish and Portuguese. English-speaking use broadened after the Reformation, when Protestant families began drawing given names directly from the Old Testament, and it has never gone out of use since.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either 'drawn out of the water' or 'son, born of' — the two readings compete
The Book of Exodus supplies the Hebrew reading, tying the name to mashah, 'to draw out', because the child was drawn from the river. Many scholars of Egyptian instead connect it to the element ms or mose, 'son, born of', the same piece that ends Thutmose and Ramesses. Both readings are serious, and the name has carried both for a very long time.
How the name formed
- Mosheh
- Mōusēs
- Moses
Related forms: Moshe · Musa · Moisés · Moïse · Mosè · Mozes
Pronouncing Moses
MOH-ziz
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final syllable is usually a soft -ziz, though MOH-zis and MOH-zez are both heard. The Spanish Moisés and Arabic Musa sound quite different, which is worth knowing in a bilingual family.
Nicknames for Moses
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2016669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #119reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +0.5%583 in 2025, from 580
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Moses in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Moshe in Hebrew — same name
- Musa in Arabic — same name
- Moisés in Spanish — same name
- Moïse in French — same name
- Mosè in Italian — same name
- Mozes in Dutch — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Mosess among us
people named Moses are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,930 born in 2025 was named Moses
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Moses sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Moses is headed
Moses should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Moses beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Moses in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized and spelled correctly almost everywhere in the English-speaking world, with no competing variant spellings to correct.
- Has a form in most major languages — Moshe, Musa, Moisés, Moïse — so it travels without becoming unrecognizable.
- Comes with ready-made short forms in Mo and Moe, both long established and neither invented on the spot.
- Familiar without being common: a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, yet no one will ask what it is.
- The biblical association is total. Nobody hears this name without thinking of the Exodus figure first, and that is not a connection the name can be given a break from.
- The final -s makes the possessive awkward in writing — Moses' or Moses's, both defensible, neither settled — and forms will occasionally record it as a surname.
- It reads as an adult name more than a baby name, and currently sits with a noticeably older typical bearer. Some parents like that weight; it is worth knowing it is there.
- Mo is such a widely shared short form that it carries none of the name's distinctiveness — a Mo could be a Moses, a Mohammed or a Maurice.
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What they receive
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Moses
Masculine · #515 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mosess are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,500 people named Moses are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Moses in 2025?
- Moses ranks #515 among US boy names in 2025, with 583 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Moses?
- About 1 in every 2,930 US boys born in 2025 was named Moses — 583 in all.
- Will my child share the name Moses with classmates?
- Moses will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Moses
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marcos#516 · Callen#516 · Alexis#513 · Frank#513 · Kobe#518 · Lawrence#518 · Corbin#512 · Denver#518
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Moses? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Moses and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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